Storage, Landscape Distribution, and Burial History of Soil Organic Matter in Contrasting Areas of Continuous Permafrost

• DOI: 10.1657/aaar0014-027
• Publication Date: 2015-02-24T10:28:04Z
• Authors: J. Palmtag; G. Hugelius; N. Lashchinskiy; M. P. Tamstorf; A. Richter; B. Elberling; P. Kuhry
• Keywords: 106022 Mikrobiologie; ZACKENBERG; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; CLIMATE; IGNITION; CANADA; 13. Climate action; soil organic matter; SDG 13 – Maßnahmen zum Klimaschutz; PEATLANDS; SDG 13 - Climate Action; 106022 Microbiology; CRYOTURBATION; CARBON DISTRIBUTION; ARCTIC ALASKA; SEDIMENTS; permafrost; ACCUMULATION; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

This study describes and compares soil organic matter (SOM) quantity and characteristics in two areas of continuous permafrost, a mountainous region in NE Greenland (Zackenberg study site) and a lowland region in NE Siberia (Cherskiy and Shalaurovo study sites). Our assessments are based on stratified-random landscape-level inventories of soil profiles down to 1 m depth, with physico-chemical, elemental, and radiocarbon-dating analyses. The estimated mean soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in the upper meter of soils in the NE Greenland site is 8.3 ± 1.8 kg C m -2 compared to 20.3 ± 2.2 kg C m -2and 30.0 ± 2.0 kg C m -2 in the NE Siberian sites (95% confidence intervals). The lower SOC storage in the High Arctic site in NE Greenland can be largely explained by the fact that 59% of the study area is located at higher elevation with mostly barren ground and thus very low SOC contents. In addition, SOC-rich fens and bogs occupy a much smaller proportion of the landscape in NE Greenland (∼3%) than in NE Siberia (∼20%). The contribution of deeper buried C-enriched material in the mineral soil horizons to the total SOC storage is lower in the NE Greenland site (∼13%) compared to the NE Siberian sites (∼24%-30%). Buried SOM seems generally more decomposed in NE Greenland than in NE Siberia, which we relate to different burial mechanisms prevailing in these regions.